Auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters



Apfil 15, 1941. s, \"Ew Em 2,238,352

AUXILIARY GRIfPING ATTACHMEN'P' FOR TYPEWRITERS Filed June 5, 1940Patented Apr. 15, 1941 AUXILIARY GRIPPING ATTACHMENT FOR, TYPEWRITERSStanley E. View and Louis Steirer, Chicago, 111.

Application June 3, 1940, Serial No. 338,498

Claims.

This invention relates to a new and improved auxiliary grippingattachment for typewriters and has for one of its principal objects theprovision of clips easily clasped to a typewriter platen for the expresspurpose of securely gripping a card or other small size sheet.

An important object of this invention is to provide an attachment fortypewriters that firmly holds a card or the like and prevents it fromslipping either in a sidewise direction or in an up and down direction,thus permitting the typing of a line immediately adjacent to either thebottom or top of the card.

Another important object of this invention is the provision ofdetachable card holding devices for typewriters that make for an evenlytyped card or the like and regardless of the number of cards that aretyped the margins will all coincide and so present a uniformityimpossible to obtain otherwise,

A still further important object of this invention is to provide a cardor label holding attachment for typewriters to enable the operator towrite on the lowermost line of the card or label without it falling outor becoming twisted and yet allow writing on the entire card or labeland also allow complete turning of the typewriter platen or roll in anormal forward direction without any ill effects to the attachment, tothe roll or to other adjacent parts of the typewriter.

Other and further important objects of the invention will be apparentfrom the disclosures in the accompanying drawing and followingspecification.

The invention, in a preferred form, is illustrated in the drawing andhereinafter more fully described.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 shows a front view of a typewriter roll or platen with theauxiliary gripping attachmerits of this invention clasped thereto and acard positioned therein.

Figure 2 is a side view of the C shaped clasping element.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the card clip before it is shaped and bentupon itself.

Figure 4 is a plan View of the card holding clip after it has beenshaped and before it is bent.

Figure 5 is a side view of the clip as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a plan view of the completed card securing clip ready forfastening to the C shaped clasping element as shown in Figure 2.

Figure '7 is a front view of the assembled auxiliary card or labelgripping attachment.

Figure 8 is a sectional view of the device taken on line 8-8 of Figure'7.

Figure 9 is a back view of the assembled device of this invention.

As shown in the drawing:

The reference numeral l0 indicates generally a typewriter roll or platenwhich is usually made with a metal core surmounted by a rubber covering.A standard typewriter is equipped with numerous gripping devices thathold the paper or other material to be written upon in a firm position,provided, that the paper or other material is large enough to have agood portion of it underneath the roll in contact with these standardgrippingdevices. When typing is desired on a card or label or some othersmall piece of writing material these standard gripping devices failmiserably to perform their function. The card is rolled around theplaten to the desired point and typing is begun. Nine times out of tenthe card slips and the line of typing is on a diagonal. For somepurposes a crooked line of typing cannot be tolerated and it was withthis in mind that the auxiliary gripping attachment of this inventionwas perfected. Visible record files wherein the bottom line of numerouscards are the index to valuable informa-.

of these cards perfectly uniform and horizontal in order to expeditesearches through these As shown in Figure 1, two attachments arepreferably used to support a card 12 or the like by its lower extremecorners. The two attachments are the left and right respectively and forconvenience the left hand clip is shown in the drawing in detail. Theright hand clip will be the opposite of the left one shown. The roll orplaten O shaped clasps l4 can be made of a spring steel or othermaterial of substance that has the desired elasticity and strength.These clasps are adapted to snap onto the typewriter platen or. roll andwill remain on the platen as long as it is turned in a forward orfeeding direction. The removal of the elasps I4 is accomplished by arotation of the platen in a backward direction.

The actual card holding left hand clip is shown in its successiveproduction steps in Figures 3, 4-5, and 6. Figure 3 shows a plan of theblank from which the clip I6 is made. In this form it has the shape of areversed F, whereas the right hand clip will take the shape of a regularF.

The first operation performed upon the blank reversed F shown completedin Figures 4 and 5 is the offsetting downwardly of the upper arm I8along the line 20, and at the same time the forming of the upper half ofthe blank 22 into a convex curve and the lower half 24 into a concavecurve. This insures proper curvature around the platen.

As best shown in Figure 6 the lower half 24 of the reversed F blank hasbeen turned down and up to a position adjacent the upper half 22. Thearms l8 and 26 lie in the same plane because the arm 68 is offsetrearwardly along the line 20. These clips are made from an extreme- 1ythin stock of steel or other suitable material, and when the arms l8 andare welded or otherwise fastened to the clasp M as best shown in Figures7 and 9 at 28 it makes no appreciable change in the thickness of theclasp element Hi which must necessarily be of a sturdy elastic materialto maintain a constant grip on the typewriter platen. The relation ofthe clasp element and clip must be such that the thickness of the claspwill not injure any part of the typewriter,

but at the same time should be thick enough to protect the clip. Afterthe. card is inserted in the clip it is for ail intent and purposes flatagainst the platen because the clip is of such a thin material.

Figure 7 shows the entire device with a card 2 inserted into the clipIt. The upper and lower halves of the reversed F blank form the frontand rear respectively of the receiving pocket of the clip. The lowercorner of the card fits down into this pocket easily because the upperor front half 22 has its upper corner trimmed as shown at 30. The cardhas its side flush with the olfset along line 20 as best shown in Figure8. It is this offset along with the side of the clasp I4 that preventssidewise movement of the card l2. Figure 8 is enlarged to clearly showhow the card sets in the clip I6.

There have been numerous attempts to make a device of this type, butnone have proven successful. It is the simplicity which renders thedevice of this invention far superior to its predecessors. The clipportion of the device is made separately to maintain thinness of thedevice. If the clip were to be struck out from the clasp material itwould add so much to the thickness as to prevent the platen fromrotating.

Two attachments are generally used, one for the left side and one forthe right side. They are snapped on the typewriter roll or platen at anydesired separated distance to accommodate any size card or label. Withvery little practice it is possible to obtain speed and accuracy inapplying these. Once the attachments are on, and similar size cards arebeing used, it is impossible to get anything but a uniform margin on allthe cards and never any diagonal or untrue lines. It is entirelypossible to use only one attachment successfully for small labels or thelike where not much strain is put on the attachment. In fact, the pocketportion of the clip can be made much wider if it is desired to use onlyone clip. The Wider the pocket portion is made the more securely thecard is held,

It is believed that herein is provided a very useful article that can bemanufactured quite economically. Anyone that uses a card file will findthis device an aid in the writing up of the cards. All druggists thatmake prescription labels will welcome such a good auxiliary grippingattachment.

We are aware that many changes may be made and numerous details ofconstruction varied throughout a wide range without departing from theprinciples of this invention, and we, therefore, do not propose limitingthe patent granted hereon otherwise than as necessitated by the priorart.

We claim as our invention:

1. An auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters comprising a Cshaped spring platen clasp and a clip attached to the clasp, the clipcomposed of front and rear members and each of the front and rearmembers having arms attached to the clasp.

2. An auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters comprising a Cshaped spring platen clasp and a clip, the clip composed of front andrear members and each of the front and rear members having arms weldedto the clasp and the front and rear members formed from one piece ofmaterial and continues around the bottom and open at the top for thereception of writing material.

3. An auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters comprising a Cshaped spring platen clasp and a clip, the clip composed of front andrear members spaced from each other and each of the front and rearmembers having arms welded to the clasp and the front and rear membersformed from one piece of material and continuous around the bottom andopen at the top for the reception of writing material and the frontmember arm offset rearwardly into the plane of the rear arm.

4. An auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters comprising a Cshaped spring platen clasp and a clip, the clip composed of front andrear members spaced from each other and each of the front and rearmembers having arms welded to the clasp and the front and rear membersformed from one piece of material and continuous around the bottom andopen at the top for the reception of writing material and the frontmember arm offset rearwardly into the plane of the rear arm and the clipcurved to follow the contour of the platen.

5. An auxiliary gripping attachment for typewriters comprising a Cshaped spring platen clasp and a clip attached to the clasp, the clipcomposed of front and rear members and each of the front and rearmembers having arms attached to the clasp, and the clasp element thickenough to extend out slightly above the clip and so act as a protectionfor the clip.

STANLEY E. VIEW. LOUIS STEIRER.

